ASHWAUBENON – The Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers are pitching in together to tackle a long-term problem: helping minority-owned startups score investment money.
In collaboration with Microsoft, the state's three major-league franchises created the Equity League, a networking initiative to increase investment in businesses started by Black and Latino entrepreneurs.
The Packers said 1% of venture capital-backed startups have Black founders and less than 2% are Latino. Only 3% of employees at venture capital investment funds are Black or Latino professionals.
In short, when money and resources get handed out for potentially great new ideas, Black and Latino entrepreneurs are at the back of the line, if they even know about the line in the first place.